32. Man-to-Man

THIRTY-TWO

Man-to-Man

Rus sat with his laptop at the conference table in Moran’s office.

Moran had been called away for something.

Rus was going through email, writing reports, and texting Lucinda.

He’d started it off with, Madden okay this morning?

Her return text didn’t take long. Yes. She’s not her normal self.

Then came her next, But I think she’s shored up by making a new friend.

Being that new friend, he liked that.

How are you?he asked.

Glad the service is over. I’ll be happier when Ezra is caught, she replied.

He agreed.

He decided to take them out of that topic and texted, So, I’m gonna need an explanation of this Bonner and Sexton thing.

She replied, Hillary will be with Madden at the suite tonight while I work. I can come to your room when I get back, and we can have a drink before we turn in. I’ll share it all then.

You’re on, he agreed. Then added, I’ll also want to hear all about Bonner Mountain.

To that he got a gif of Julie Andrews twirling on a mountaintop.

He smiled.

It was then, like the man was monitoring his texts, he got one from Eric Turner.

Notice you’re on her and her girl. You still need cover for her house and club?

How many of your team are up here?

Just two.

For that crew, two was more like six.

Still.

Keep it on your radar, but when Lucinda is at the club, and Madden is at the hotel, they should be covered.

Yeah, saw her security. Trying to get a bead on the lead of her detail. She carries herself special forces, but we ran her, no military training. Her employment history has all been private details.

Military was Rus’s bead on Kleo too. Even though only a few women had passed special forces training courses, so it would be impossible for her to have that tag, he would have said she at least had military training. He was surprised she didn’t.

We’ll keep on them when we can, Eric finished it.

Or not quite.

He then sent, You’re cute with the girl, and her mom has a great wardrobe.

Rus sent him an okay sign emoji.

He then sent a middle finger emoji.

After that, he went back to his report, but wasn’t working on it long before his phone rang.

McGill.

He took the call.

“Hey, Ben.”

“Yo, Rus. Right, got some more for you. Ran the prints, what we got from his house versus what we got from the outside and inside of the window places Ezra there.”

Fucking fantastic.

“Forensics team also took some samples from around the frame. Someone recently used WD-40 so it wouldn’t squeak,” McGill carried on. “We called motel management, they haven’t treated those windows, as in, never.”

Carrie Molnar had a few things she needed to do when she set up for a murder, and she did them.

And the story was coming together.

The story of what happened to Brittanie.

The story, if these two assholes didn’t cop a plea, the prosecutor would tell a jury that would convict them for what they did to take away the friend who was the first Keyleigh wanted to share her good news with, the daughter a dad could have pulled his shit together (maybe) and shown some love, the only big sister a child had ever known.

“What about Molnar’s prints?” Rus asked.

“No go,” McGill said. “Maybe Ezra helped her through the window. Maybe she was smart enough to put gloves on early. Maybe he got access, neutralized the victim, and let her in the front door.”

A lot of maybes.

But at this point, they didn’t matter.

“For you,” Rus started. “One of Moran’s deputies went on the hunt, and at a New Age shop in Seattle, she located an owner who recalls selling the crystal placed on Brittanie to Carrie Molnar. The ID is solid because she said Molnar struck her attention. She wasn’t the type to shop there, even just to have a look around. And she didn’t seem to give a shit what she bought. She went to the crystals, picked one, and then took it to the cash register. She paid for it in cash but bitched about how much it cost.”

“I bet when we can get into her laptop, she’ll have serial killer searches and receipts for online purchases of plastic tarp.”

They hadn’t found Molnar, but they’d gotten a warrant and searched her house.

They didn’t turn up a bloody hammer (same with their search of Ezra and Sherri’s house), but they got her prints and her computer.

“So the clerk who checked her in the day before at the motel in ID’d her. She bought the crystal. We can place Ezra at the motel. If they can enhance that video, we have both of them there that night, or at least they’d need to explain why they were driving through the lot of a business that wasn’t open but was in the vicinity. It’s enough to indict. Now we just have to find these two fuckers.”

“Yeah, that’s what we gotta do. We’re on it here.”

“We got no stones left to turn here, but we’re still on it too.”

“CK?” McGill asked.

“Bohannan is coming in. We’re going to see if we can come up with a plan to flush him out.”

“You know that just gave me a shiver, Rus.”

He knew it did.

He knew why.

There was only one plan available.

Somehow use Rus as bait to get him to expose himself.

“We got this opportunity, Ben. I’m not squandering it.”

“Yeah,” Ben agreed, but he didn’t sound happy about it.

They disconnected, and Rus was at his report for five minutes before Moran walked in with Bohannan.

He exchanged chin lifts with Bohannan, but mostly, his attention was reserved for Moran.

“What’s going on?”

Moran all but collapsed in a chair at the conference table.

Bohannan took his with far more control.

But he had his attention on Moran too.

“Good news, Lana has taken Shannon under her wing,” Moran shared. “She isn’t a lioness, ready to tear you limb from limb if you get close to her cub. She’s an ice queen perfectly willing to pierce your heart with the icicles she can shoot from her eyes. I don’t know how she got Shannon to move in with her and Dean, but she did. I sense part of this is to protect and look after her, and part of it might be her jumping at a chance to replace Malorie. I don’t give much of a fuck which it is. I’m just relieved Shannon is covered.”

“That’s good,” Rus said hesitantly, also relieved, but this didn’t explain Moran’s mood.

“Bad news, Tyler Cook, Michael Mitchell, Dylan Rogers and Austin Brooks are all pieces of shit. I’ve known that for years. Most of the town has too. Built. Good-looking. Athletes. Popular at school. Acted like they owned this town then, and that hasn’t changed much since they graduated. Straight up, when Shannon told her story, they were the first ones that came to mind. We’ve had trouble with them. Nothing as serious as Shannon. Underage drinking, and with that driving. Intimidating behavior. They’re banned from Aromacobana because they acted like such shits in there. And Double D got close to doing that too.”

“All right,” Rus said when he stopped talking.

“Now they’re getting shit from folks in town,” Moran went on. “Dylan’s been fired, and he’s pissed, says his boss has no reason. He’s been to Ellen’s house, banging on the door and shouting. Twice, she called us, and we had to cite him to get him to leave her alone. Dean says he caught him on the way to his door. Dean’s a serious guy. He walked out with a baseball bat in hand, Dylan had second thoughts.”

Rus had not yet met Dean, but he already liked him.

“Tyler’s always made my skin crawl,” Moran shared. “No empathy in that guy. He’s the leader and probably the one who Shannon had a crush on. Only light shining on this is that he went away to school and didn’t come back. I don’t know where he is, and I haven’t seen him around for years.”

Rus nodded.

Moran kept going.

“Michael is dumb as a rock and would follow them off a cliff. Austin, he probably was a good kid, until he got messed up with them. He’s trying to distance himself from all this now. But you rape a fifteen-year-old, that clings to you no matter how good you were before you gave into peer pressure like that.”

“Gotta ask, Harry, outside members of your team having to go and give citations, not sure why this is a problem,” Bohannan noted. “They’re reaping what the sowed.”

“I just don’t want them to sow any more. That’s my concern,” Moran replied.

Both Rus and Bohannan nodded in understanding.

A man felt entitled to do what he wanted, it took a serious knockdown for him to learn differently, and unfortunately, this wasn’t the kind of knockdown it took. This was the kind of thing that brought to the surface how much he felt the world owed him for just being born.

“But that isn’t what we’re here for,” Moran said. “We’re here to discuss CK. Let’s get into that.”

They started, with Bohannan sharing some ideas, but Rus’s phone rang while he was talking.

He was in an active investigation and had given his number to a lot of people, so he gave the men a one minute and took a call from a number he didn’t know.

“Lazarus.”

“Zachariah, I need your help.”

He tensed at his given name being used, and he tensed more because he recognized that voice.

He couldn’t be sure, but…

“It’s Ezra Corbin, and I didn’t do it.”

He took his phone from his ear, hit speaker, twirled his hand in the air, then jabbed a finger at Moran, and put the phone on the table.

“You didn’t kill Brittanie?” he asked as Moran got his phone out to start recording.

“No. I mean…no, I didn’t. That is…no.”

“Ezra, we need you to come in,” Rus said. “We need to talk about this.”

“I’m not coming in unless I have a deal. I didn’t kill her.”

Rus glanced at Moran and said, “Okay, let’s get that on the record. Let’s get your story down.”

“Not without a deal. You talk to Harry. You get me a deal.”

“Were you there?”

“Not without a deal, Zachariah.”

This man-to-man shit he thought he had stuck in Rus’s craw.

He ignored it and said, “You know how it goes. You’re a businessman. Harry can’t give you something if he has nothing to go on.”

“I can tell you who did it.”

“We know who did it. Carrie Molnar.”

His voice was a squeak when he said, “You have her?”

Yep.

She was there. She either did it, or she was involved. He was involved too. She could confirm that.

And Ezra was terrified of what she’d say.

“What can you tell us about that night, Ezra? Something to go on,” Rus pushed.

“Not until I’m promised a deal. In writing.”

“How are we going to get something in writing to you? We don’t know where you are. I have to tell you, and this is no lie, you need to talk to us. You need to give us your story. You need us to hear your side.”

“Just get me a deal!” he shouted.

And then the line went dead.

“Fuck,” Rus bit.

“Ezra Corbin disconnected,” Moran said for the recording before he turned it off.

They all looked at each other.

“He’s not far,” Rus said.

“No, he isn’t,” Bohannan agreed.

“Shit,” Moran said.

Then they all got up from the table and exited the room.

Because they had more stones to turn.